prototyping the user experience

April 01, 2009

3D Mobile Phone UI with Cloth Dynamics

This is a 3D prototype UI design developed by Protohaus for a mobile phone. The concept is to connect the common elements of a mobile UI with cloth dynamics. In this UI you can push, pinch, and twist the cloth. Using your finger to browse icons, they follow the dynamic path of the cloth. This prototype also leverages multi-touch and was developed on Nvidia's Tegra chip. There is a new generation of mobile UIs coming - now that this platform and others like it are becoming available.

At Protohaus we believe that 3D UIs are here to stay. Many 3D concepts borrow very tired metaphors for navigating through spaces. This metaphor ends up really being a series of transitions between elements of a UI. We choose the metaphor of a cloth because of it's natural dynamic beauty. If you look through the history of Art you will see that representations of cloth are everywhere so the idea is not new. The other aspect of a UI we feel is important and often neglected is its playful nature. The ability to poke, flip, twist, and twirl something gives us great joy.

As is often the case our best work comes from constant iteration between designer and programmer. We're always trying to push each other in a creative back and forth. User Interface design is very much an exploration of possibilities one that aims to satisfy the usability of the system but also acknowledges that our human system seeks joy.